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Scouts' monthly outing
yields an unexpected challenge

By Harry Short

Dec 2, 2006

Boy Scout Troop 379 went on its
monthly outing Nov. 18-19 and wound
up completing a major and unplanned
cleanup project in the Eastern
Superstition wilderness area.

Fifteen Scouts and 10 fathers hiked
from the remote Rogers Trough
Trailhead on Saturday to Angel
Basin, and camped overnight.

Near the end of the hike, a few
hundred yards above Angel Basin, the
troop arrived at a campsite with two
three-person tents, each including
tent flies, poles, stakes and bags,
two heavy vinyl mattresses, three
cans of food, two flashlights with
batteries, a can of bug spray, a day
pack, assorted clothing and assorted
trash.

The tents were collapsed with broken
poles, and both the tents and
mattresses were quite dirty and had
several tears.

Based on dirt and leaves in the torn
up tents, it was clear that the
equipment had been abandoned several
weeks earlier. The boys and even
some dads assumed an emergency, such
as the campers being injured or
scared off by a bear or lion, had
caused their quick departure.

The scouts are responsible for
furnishing their own camping
equipment and could not imagine
another reason someone would abandon
theirs. (Unfortunately it is more
likely that the long-gone campers
simply did not want to carry it out,
and did not make a return trip to
retrieve it, a situation seen
occasionally in Grand Canyon and
Havasupai campgrounds.)

The men and boys gathered everything
up and cut the tents and mattresses
into smaller pieces. Every Scout
and dad packed up and carried out a
portion of the trash on Sunday via
the long and scratchy JF Trail over
Tortilla Pass to the Woodbury
Trailhead.

Trails in this area are overgrown
with catclaw (aptly named),
barberry, mesquite and manzanita.

Trash taken out filled three
30-gallon trash bags and weighed 35
pounds; it trash was disposed in the
church trash bin upon returning to
Tempe.

The two-day backpacking trip covered
11.4 miles and included an
archeologist-supervised visit to the
Salado ruins near Angel Basin.